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Wednesday, January 1, 2014

FOR TODAY
Outside my window...we have an overcast summer day. The birds are cheeping and I can see some tiny robins dancing round the back yard.
I am thinking...that in a few days time I will be 30 and that 2014 is a year I want to make some wholesale changes about how we live our day-to-day life - more wholefood, more family connectedness, more crafting, more reading, more time with God, new community connections...
I am thankful...for my husband having a week off work. I am also thankful for my children adapting so well to the removal of the television to the garage. We had one post-TV tantrum too many and I banished the television from the house. I hadn't intended to do it in quite so dramatic fashion but have to say after the first day of a few whimpers we have had no further requests for viewing.
In the kitchen...I am doing a simple pasta dinner. We have had visitors two times already this week for dinner, and I feel we could all do with a less elaborate meal tonight.
I am wearing...a fawn coloured knee length skirt and a t-shirt in a Laura Ashley reproduction floral.
I am creating...a quilt for my husband's Grandmother's 90th. I made curtains for the second bathroom earlier in the week but now seem to have lost my momentum. Back to the cutting board tonight.
I am going...to be bottling wild plums. We have an abundance of wild plum trees in our town and some are frankly delicious. Mr Provincial has just gone out picking and we will preserve those this afternoon.
I am wondering...how our homeschool 4 days / formal preschool 1 day ratio will work out for Ginger this year. I am so nervous for her starting at the only preschool we could get her a place at....I have heard mixed reports. Is this the right decision? Moreover, what is the right schooling decision going forward. As we have connected with more homeschooling families in this community I am gradually envying their certainty that homeschooling is absolutely the right choice for the family - I am knee deep in the "I just don't know what to do" mire.
I am reading...a Miss Read - Storm in the Village, a collection of C.S. Lewis letters - Yours Jack, Matthew for Everyone from the New Testament for Everyone series by Tom Wright and Heaven on Earth by Sharifa Oppenheimer.
I am hoping...to finish alphabetising the children's bookcase. I got stymied at J because I ran out of laminating sheets.....
I am looking forward to...seeing my Mum tomorrow night and going to Sydney on Saturday with my husband to see America: Painting a Nation at the NSW Art Gallery - my birthday treat.
I am learning....that a pinecone does indeed close itself up when submerged in water! The knowledge a good preschool curriculum can impart:)
Around the house...I need to clean the bathrooms again, catch up on a bit of washing and decide whether to put my Mum in the new verandah room (no easy bathroom access) or clean out the toy room so she can sleep there.
I am pondering...whether we should include a candle in our night-time bed ritual for Ginger and Tom Kitten who currently share a room. Will it help the currently dragged out bedtime routine, or just add to it?
A favorite quote for today..."As parents, we do not know what will be the result of our choices and decisions about lifestyle, schooling and spiritual direction for our children. All we can do is continue to educate ourselves in our decision-making, and do the hard work these decisions demand. It is not for may years that we will be able to see what indelible impressions we have made. We just do our best day by day, year after year, in faith that our abiding love for our children will act as our guide, that love will show us the needs of each unique child of ours". Sharifa Oppenheimer
One of my favorite things...is that in our new home I hear life around me all the time - whether it be birds cheeping, a rooster crowing, or the footfall of a horse on the road. I feel so much more alive
A few plans for the rest of the week: We will re-read Ginger's assigned books tomorrow, do some more phonics work, and work on her poem memorisation (we are doing the Summer Preschool Curriculum from Wee Folk Art). I also need to do some grocery shopping tomorrow - we NEED milk!
A peek into my day...

“After all," Anne had said to Marilla once, "I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string.” L.M. Montgomery Anne of Avonlea

About Me

Economist turned home economist. Wife to Mr Provincial and mummy to Ginger (4 years) and Tom Kitten (2 years). Settling down into our own home in country NSW after 7 years of itinerant married life in the military. Christian, novice sewer, avid reader, occasional thrifter, and chief cook and bottlewasher. This is a look at our days as we grow as a family.